After being a late starter in the GPS on Smartphones market for obvious reasons (full line of GPS systems and nuviFone project with Asus), Garmin played catchup at a steady pace with the StreetPilot software for iOS and the purchase of Navigon last year, a Smartphone GPS leader. Their latest offer is the Designer Car Kit for the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Offering a car kit is certainly a good idea because this is a required piece of kit if you want to navigate with your iPhone, both to see it properly and to keep it charged. The TomTom Car Kit released in late 2009 certainly did very well for them. Garmin's version was designed by the Platinumdesign studio and certainly looks smart. It's a kit so you get access to Garmin's StreetPilot software for full "on-board" (maps and routes handled locally) guidance.

When I had my iPhone 3G, I bought a mount from Griffin. I sold the mount when I upgraded to iPhone 4 (also sold) as the mount only has clip on pieces for iPod Touch, iPhone, iPhone 3G(S).

And for amplified sound, I have nothing except using a 3-in-1 charger-FM_Transmitter-dock for iPhone from a cheap brand. I modified the short cable to a long cable by extending it (gave away as I don't have iPhone anymore). The FM transmitter is not very good and only 4 frequencies. But the charger is very fast and good quality.

I think if they bother to label it as a Car Kit, then amplified speaker is a must (GPS might not be needed as the iPhone 4 GPSr is very good), even old mobile mounts from Semsons (one old sponsor of this site and I have bought lots from in old days) have the amplified speakers.

Yes, it's a pretty basic "kit" and it does remind me of the Navigon style of mounts, might as well use the expertise of the company they bought ;-)

I'm not about to replace my TomTom iPhone Car Kit, "drop in", powered, amplified and even though my 4S built-in GPS module is powerful enough (probably even better since it can leverage AGPS) not to need the built-in GPS module of the mount it probably helps it not to heat up by using it.

Still, Garmin's kit is probably there to encourage people to jump on board with a "turn key" solution rather than not doing it because they'll have to get the pieces separately.